Redwood Materials intends to set up some of the first U.S. plants producing anodes and cathodes for electric vehicle batteries.Redwood Materials, which recycles old lithium-ion batteries and makes components for new ones, said it’s raised more than $1 billion in a new funding round as the company works to set up some of the first U.S. production facilities making anode and cathode materials for electric vehicle batteries.
Led by JB Straubel, a Tesla board member who was also one of the company’s five cofounders and its former chief technology officer, Carson City, Nevada-based Redwood has raised about $2 billion since 2019, the company said in an emailed statement.
“Business-strategy-wise, there’s a gap and a problem in the supply chain,” he said at the time. “It may not be the sexiest part of the whole realm to invest in but I think it's urgent and may become more of a bottleneck. So we’re very focused there.” Redwood’s campus near Reno, where it first began recycling operations, has begun producing copper foil that the closely held company supplies to Panasonic. It’s also building a, to supply new battery plants popping up across the U.S. Southeast with anode and cathode materials, partially made with recycled materials.
Goldman Sachs, Capricorn and T. Rowe Price co-led Redwood’s new Series D round. First-time investors included Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, or OMERS.